#PARDON MY RAMBLE

[pixelpoff]

I was gonna put this in the tags but I have too much to say

Old people in my church try to preach that the wine in bible times was purely grape juice, no alcohol content at all. To try and say Jesus never created something with an alcohol content, so that they have reasoning behind their conviction not to drink.

He said to the bridegroom, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10)

The master of ceremonies is admitting that hosts would serve the good wine first, and insinuating that WHEN EVERYONE IS GETTING TIPSY, they bring out the poor wine because everyone is too drunk to tell the difference. This verse admits to the wine Jesus created having an alcohol content, because "his wine was the best, and yet saved until last."

‭‭Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1 NIV)

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1 KJV)

The writer of Proverbs warns against getting drunk. That anyone who loses their sound mind due to drunkenness is unwise. This verse also proves that the wine being drunk by Israelites, and later, Christians, had an alcohol content. You cannot get drunk on non alcoholic drinks.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, (Romans 14:17)

Paul warns US, the church, not to squabble about matters of earthly opinion, like food and drink. Romans chapter 14, "The Law of Liberty", is where Paul elaborates that to some Christians, they have a strong conviction about what is good and not good to eat and drink. To others, they are strongly convinced that everything God created is good, and therefore good to consume.

Frankly, some Christians used to be alcoholics, (because yes, wine and beer have alcohol!) And now, they are standing upon verses like Proverbs 20:1 to justify their abstinence from alcohol altogether. They know their limits, and they are justified in their decision. They are no longer being led astray by strong drink, and therefore are no longer unwise.

SOME Christians, like the ones in my church, preach "I'm abstaining, so I must be the correct one, so I advocate you must also abstain. If you do not abstain, you are WELCOMING the temptation to "be led astray."

But the verse warns against "being led astray." Becoming a drunkard. Not against enjoying a drink.

I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Romans 14:14

BUT, if your "liberty", your FREEDOM from conviction is causing you to argue with the one still convicted, then you are not free at all. You are becoming a stumbling block to your brother, telling him something is "ok to do" when HE is not okay with it. And so, we become the same "preachy, self justifying" Christian that the non-drinker was. We judge the abstainer because "they are not free like I am", while the abstainer judges us because "they are not obeying like I am."

Which is all EXACTLY why Paul said the Kingdom is not a matter of eating or drinking. What a waste of time this was!! All these words, and you still drink, and they still don't, and God loves both the same.

‭

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. ‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2:23‬

[pricetagged]

MEDIEVAL SCAMMER GHOAP?! Please enlighten us🙏🙏🙏

Since you both asked so nicely, have a snippet of a whisp of a concept😅

I have an idea. Not fully fleshed out. I could go in two directions, either historical Ghoap working as Pardoners and taking advantage of ignorant village reader (corruption kink, religious themes, abuse of power etc.).

OR, for my monster-lovers, has anyone seen Dragonheart? I was picturing, like, one of them is something beastly, the other plays at knight = profit? Fantasy scam and rescue? So, it would go something like this:

(Tw kidnapping and kind of mean Ghoap)

---------

Your situation didn't look any better flipped on its head. Flipped on your head, rather. Snatched and thrown over a bulky shoulder, high– higher than even your standing position. It was discomfiting; it was terrifying. Blood rushed to your face not only in fury but also in shame as your skirts fluttered in the breeze.

He noticed, too. His greedy fingers dug into your thighs, skimming down like he was soothing a skittish horse. But you felt the way he lingered. The way he chuffed and squeezed tighter when you kicked out with all the strength of a skittish colt.

Your fists pounded uselessly against heavy splint-mail, hands-catching on rough nodules and spikes that didn't quite register as pain. Not to your panic-stricken mind, thoughts flying off in the wind behind you as the beast carried you off.

But the smack registered.

Perhaps it was the sound, the harsh slap of flesh on flesh. Whipping crack, like the snapping of a great branch. The precursor to an eerie stillness, violence begetting obmutescence. And it worked–

–for a second. For the time it took for your stinging nerves to catch up with your racing mind. Then you howled. Kicked and clawed and hissed like a feral cat as tears welled in your lash-line.

"How dare you–"

"Quit yer fashin'. Ye'll bring the whole kingsguard down this way–"

"–good–"

"–and then I'll have tae kill them all," That had your attention, legs tense under the heavy band of his bicep. "Dinnae much feel like sharin' ye around."

"Oh, you beast! You foul, vile, disgusting–" Your voice was high, words scratching as they hitched out of your aching throat.

It hurt to speak, vocal cords already shredded from the way you'd screamed when he'd first ransacked your village. Coughing on heavy, acrid smoke and crying futile warnings about the Black Knight and his monster-in-arms ('Quiet, girl. Viper-tonged harlot, slither off and for gods' sake, quiet!') . But it hurt more to be silent. You flung insults like broken arrows, hoping that they would somehow land. That they would hit, fortuitously, and pierce the thick-hide of this brute. But hope is vain, and the fancies of men make gods laugh.

You landed hard on something soft.

Ego almost as bruised as your knees, you kept your eyes low. Sweeping. Marshy, wet silt. Topsoil sluiced off, only mud and clay and reeds to your right. A cheerfully babbling brook just beyond, water murky and discoloured with backwash from– the water flowed past the estuary of the village so it must be– no–

The realisation was caustic. Mordant. Burning at you like the scorched air in your lungs.

"You're a monster," you spat the words, mouth watering in your haste to let ichor drip forth and blacken him as much as the foul, brackish water ahead.

"Noticed that, did ye," he laughed, words glancing off like feeble blows. "Best not tae piss me off, then. Stay there and behave yersel'. Company's comin'."

Glancing up at him was like a blow to the stomach, wind punched out and body shaking. You already knew that he was big, inhuman. But now you could see every inch; monstrous, twisted mockery of natural features. Like a man formed of rock, too immense and hard and jagged to pass for anything but artificial. Counterfeit. Contranatural. Creation's bastard. All tusks and teeth and shorn hair. Hair everywhere, even down his bare, bulging forearms and thick knuckles. Coarse, dark.

His eerie, bright blue eyes blazed around black, pupils wild and blown. It could be the thrill, cruel playfulness of an apex predator. Berserker-wide, coming down from the kill–

But he'd been carrying you for a while, bloodlust long-since sated on the men and manse of your homeland.

You shivered, sweat and cold mingling in a discomfiting damp that raised the hairs on your arms. (The hairs on the back of your neck were already needle-stiff and prickling).

You pocketed a stone, a big jagged filthy shard. One you hoped could bruise and slash and poison, turn wounds weeping and sick.

Now that you were silent, he seemed especially strident, swaggering around the barebones of what you supposed must be a dwelling. You felt the slight whistling of air from the cave behind, cavernous and black. If you had to run, to hide, you'd take your chances with the forest and river ahead. To be lost in the appetites of the mountain abyss would spell death as surely as at the hands of this creature.

You watched him, cocksure and comfortable as he shucked off his warhammer and began unbuckling his braces. If you could read the snarl of his crooked teeth, you'd perhaps say he was in high spirits. He sent you a wink as he shrugged off his splint-mail, gravelly laugh echoing in the cavern behind.

It disguised the approach of your visitor.

"Grabbed the wrong one, Johnny," you shrieked as something grabbed your forearm, hauling you up. Looking down you saw the muted sheen of a spiked gauntlet. Black patina, flaked in iron rust. You swallowed hard, lump in your throat so big that it caught any words that might try to escape. Him. The Black Knight. The Liar. 

"Ye said to grab the pretty one by the fancy house."

"She's not the magistrate's daughter. No ransom for her." He spun you around, metal biting hard into your chin as he arched your face towards his.

Cloaked in ink-black helm and visor, you could just about peer in to meet his gaze. He looked back with cold, assessing eyes. The voice that rumbled forth was as harsh and breccial as you remembered, words rending you apart with serrated precision: "Not worth a rescue mission."

He released your chin with a final shake of your head, huffing amusement as you rubbed at the thin scratches he left behind.

It was hard to breathe now, stomach swirling and head-light. Even if you could will yourself, it wouldn’t help. There was already a faint coppery smell leeching from the Knight; your heart recognised it even if you would not give name to it. It sped up, fast enough to rush past your ears with discordant force. 

You didn’t feel the other one step up behind you, not until it was too late. There, trapped between man and monster (man the monster), tight enough that you couldn't even shiver. You felt the power of the creature even more now without the armour, all muscle and fat, sheer power close enough to sink your fingers into. But you couldn't move, your shallow breaths already catching in your throat into soft, hitching whines. 

"Shh, it's alright, bonnie," Rough, clumsy fingers swiped under your eyes. You felt him crouch lower, stubbly hair and tusks digging into your powder-soft cheek. "Looks like we're gonnae have tae keep you, then."

------------

[sunstone-smiles]

CABRIZZIO YOU- YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT SO CASUALLY-

Wow, okay, way to make the phrase "tickled" even more flustering than in already is

[applerums]

what's funny to me about an xfiles + control crossover is the fact that i know for certain mulder would go batshit insane trying to find and get inside the oldest house. sniffing the fbc out like a fucking bloodhound, biting skinner's desk begging to be let in just to see what the fuck they're up to in there, and the fbc wouldn't want him ANYWHERE near them if he were the last living man on earth BUT ☝️ they'd snatch dana scully in a heartbeat

[r-aindr0p]

Thoughts on book 6 while it's still fresh in my mind because that was a lot :')

The whole story in general is great to me tbh It's one of the rare visual novel format games where I actually take the time to read the main story but book 6 felt very special for many reasons

I think it's since everyone in the teams (minus the fools that came to get grim and bring Vil his cosmetics) Has overblotted already and they know how it is, they were already more or less in the process of working on themselves and somehow kept on thinking things through during the long descent into tartarus. In every book there's a sense of urgency during the overblot phase, and there too but it takes them so much time to actually reach down and realize what's has been happening for the last 4 to 5 hours that they had time to experience conflict and bonding. I did every single battle in every hangar to read all these little interactions, the bickering, kicks and compliments.

It was exhausting in the best possible way.

Making a bullet list of what struck me from this point because I have trouble explaining things clearly especially when there is a lot of things :')

Battles : so many, poorly rewarded in gems but great reward in interactions actually

Ost : 10/10 will remember, I love synthetizer sounds and Ignihyde/book 6 did not disappoint

Jamil mumbling the whole time trying to have a strategy against the phantoms while Leona casually keeps ripping into him (and firing spells at him because he's in the way, cats are assholes so this checks out/pos)

Riddle and Azul both wanting to be right in their explanations everyone yaps and no one listens

Pomefiore was vibing though and I loved that for them

Jamil you had 3 hours you could've slept it doesnt take that long to gather supplies for two please sleep

Azul so exhausted he slept on Riddle's shoulder, aww :)

So uh...? Did the phantoms lure Ortho to merge with them or was there and Actual part of late Ortho down there....? Either way, eerie, I like that

Robots getting a heart/soul is one of my favorite themes ever I am so happy for the little guy

Also Ortho has the same seiyuu as Mikaze Ai from utapri who is a singing robot i am going insane about that (and he sings the op song for kono oto tomare but that's unrelated) Love that seiyuu

Sobbing for Idia because he must've felt really done with everything and desperate to be able to actually Overblot (Au bord du gouffre, et au fond du trou as I'd say in french idk how to explain this)

Please Idia share things, it's scary to think about it but it's actually not that bad and sharing your interests feels great, you already do that in a way at the board games club, continue this way

Vil was the MVP throughout the whole book honestly beautiful in every way hearing him genuinely cry and then laugh in such a short span of time threw me off positively

More Rook lore hello wdym "oh I have several family villas and a bunch of siblings" WHAT DO YOU MEAN SIR

Unfortunately I remembered Grim has the same seiyuu as h*talia england so hearing him cry felt weird for a second, happy he's back though

Hey wdym "we renovated the whole ass dorm and every single room but lmao not yours though"

Mickey apparitions feel so off everytime it pulls me out of the immersion in the story because it's so goofy (it's like hearing donald duck take damage in Kingdom hearts battles I can't take it seriously it's too funny)

Fuck legend of the underworld.

That's about it ! And I'm probably forgetting a bunch of other details right now but I loved book 6 despite my complaining posts :") I have trouble knowing how I feel in general/processing my own feelings and put words onto them but I like stories like this because it helps with that ?? I really feel happy and sad and other things, and realize it the moment I feel it ?? Once again I don't really know how to explain it but it's a positive experience.

Thanks for sticking along with my yapping and during my speedrun of the book :')

Minor book 7 stuff under the cut

Wdym I need to level up good cards for book 7 ???

Is it that hard and hellish ?? I barely crawled out of the 6000 tartarus fights 😭

Well I hope you can choose whoever unlike the teams in book 6 because I'm about to create the dream team called "Oops ! All Rook Hunt !"/hj

Anyway here's my ssrs, what's painful is farming for the spell materials honestly but My Rollo is maxed out and well taken care of ✨️ Malleus and Lilia do decent damage as well and have their spells either maxed or at 8 each. Though I tend to level up cards based on their looks and favorites rather than how useful they are :)) I have no idea if there's a single healer in there I'll check it out later.

But for now I will harrass Sam until I get at least one ssr perfume in his lootboxes so I can uncap savanaclaw Rook once more and have him forever locked up in the guest room with Rollo, the closest thing to croissant de lune I'll have in game hhhjgfje

[dr-rato]

I really want to make a human bill design but I'm genuinely fighting on what direction I want to take it

[momentomori24]

[This has been sitting in my draft for a while lol]

When it comes to Curly's failings, I always see people bring up his obvious failure to protect Anya and him prioritising Jimmy, who was the rapist in that situation. Which is completely valid btw and we should rake him through the coals for that alone even more. But I also see too many people saying that Curly "didn't enable Jimmy" or playing softball for his actions. And I could maybe see where that comes from if that incident was the only thing we had to point to-- but that wasn't all he did, is it? Curly being indifferent or not taking Jimmy's mistreatment and belittlement of Anya seriously was hinted at so much earlier than that.

Namely, the very first time we play from Curly's point of view. Let's just skip the fact that Curly was putting everyone in danger by not taking his psych evals seriously and simply giving the same answers to pass them even tho he was shown literal minutes after this scene being clearly not-sane, and go straight to the point I actually wanna get into. Which is this:

These scenes in isolation wouldn't be that bad. From his pov, it's played off as comical and it is. Jimmy being a brony (not really lmao) and getting playfully dragged over it is funny. But unfortunately this is the first example out of many for Curly's complacency. Anya is complaining about Jimmy not taking his psych evals or her seriously, which is easy to believe considering how much he rags on her for "not being a good nurse" (she kept Curly alive on hopes and dreams how dare you). So he keeps making her do silly and inappropriate reports she clearly doesn't wanna do, which is kinda shitty (also borders on harassment). But rather than actually saying something about Jimmy's behaviour or even acknowledging how it sucks he says this:

Mate, that's not a good thing 💀 He's clearly aware that the problem is Jimmy's lack of respect for Anya specifically. He knows that if he, his friend and a man in power, were the one doing the evals Jimmy wouldn't try that disrespect. But it's Anya, a meek woman who ranks lower than him so he thinks he can get away with it (which he DOES), and Curly's shown as comfortable in knowing that. He doesn't chew Jimmy out for making Anya uncomfortable nor does he reassure her that he will do something about it. All he does is take it off her hands this once and helps Jimmy power through it to get a good diagnosis (even tho we know he's DEFINITELY not sane either). He doesn't even mention Anya's discomfort or confront him on his inappropriate behaviour, just teases Jimmy in good fun instead because he doesn't think of it as anything serious. It's subtle and pretty minor in comparison to everything else, but I think it's worth pointing out. Especially because this convo takes place after Jimmy had assaulted her, which makes this so much worse.

If you need any more evidence of Curly being an enabler you need not look further than Anya herself. And I'm not just talking about the way he failed her here-- I'm talking about Anya's own view of Curly and the way said view influences her actions.

Just look at her choice of wording. "What would you have done". This is in response to him saying that she could've come to him if she were feeling stressed, which she-- in his eyes-- didn't. The question itself implies that she had no faith in Curly to actually help despite his insistence that he would've, which I think is significant because it shows that she's very much aware of Curly's shortcomings when it comes to her situation AND it's one of the first (or the first time) she actually verbalised her lack of trust towards him or anyone directly. Prior to this scene she had told him about her rape and the rapist, presumably because she trusted him to handle it. And he dismissed her because the rapist was his best friend, and that evidently deeply scarred her. Enough so that she secretly took the gun and hid it someplace else and didn't even tell Curly were that was, because she knows that if Curly has access to it there's a so much greater chance Jimmy will have too, insinuated by the line "the least I can do is make sure he never gets it either". Speaking about the gun:

It sucks so bad that this perception of him isn't even inaccurate nor unjustified. That despite everything Jimmy had done to her and everything he could still do to her, he'd very likely still not allow her access to the gun for protection. Because that's exactly what he didn't do anyway. He didn't attempt to keep her safe from Jimmy, instead he just pretended that nothing was wrong and still let Jimmy's belittlement of her pass. He didn't give her the gun after the incident, because she wouldn't have hid the case if he had. Despite his desperate reassurance that he'd do anything, he did nothing but make it worse for her and she KNOWS that. It's so frustrating knowing he entrusted the axe to Swansea when he needed it but not the gun to Anya when she needed it too. Also this:

The fact that his knee-jerk reaction to her admitting that she's pregnant was "Who would you--" is so fucked, especially considering she's already told him what happened. "Who would you" what? Who would you fuck? Who would you have sex with? That choice of wording drives me up a wall-- SHE wouldn't and didn't do anything or anyone. That was JIMMY. The potential sentence implies that she had any choice or agency in her pregnancy. She didn't. And the fact that Curly had to ask "who" insinuates that he's been putting Jimmy's action out of sight and out of mind the whole time, choosing to not think about them or what happened to Anya at all. And considering he still made her do Jimmy's evaluations despite being able to do them himself and literally didn't even think of making sure she gets psych evals done too--especially AFTER getting sexually assaulted--that might actually be the case (I haven't seen anyone make a stink about that piece of info so I'm going to because what kinda colossal fuck up IS that??).

I vaguely had a post like this in mind but seeing so many people be like "well Anya did some wrong stuff too like leaving Curly alone with Jimmy but you don't get mad at HER for that so why is Curly not doing anything about Jimmy being alone with Anya so different??" actually makes me want to blow some people up. Jimmy's an abuser, sure, but Anya has no real reason to believe that he'd actually harm Curly. From her perspective, they were close, close enough that Curly would not only let Jimmy continuously disrespect her but also get away with assaulting her too. That, and she knows that Jimmy was closer to Curly than anyone and more likely to be civil around him than he ever was to her. She has barely any reasons to suspect Jimmy would harm Curly when they're alone. Curly, on the other hand, has every fucking reason on the planet to think Jimmy would harm her when they're alone. He knows he raped her (likely in her room at night too). He knows that he sexually harasses her. He knows that he doesn't respect her at all. And that was BEFORE the crash. Anya tried insisting on giving Curly his medicine, only for Jimmy to keep aggressively insisting that he'll take care of it despite her protests. Curly didn't try to keep them separate at all even though he was the Captain and had the power to do so. And this should go without saying, but leaving your rapist alone with his best friend that he was close to and enabled/protected him and leaving your friend alone with the woman he raped (and might have repeatedly assaulted given his free access to her) is NOT THE SAME and I'm going to start chucking some people down a waterfall because what the fuck is that argument 💀 Actually leave it to the fandom of the game where the rape of a woman is the catalyst for the events that unfold to use her trauma to defend the guy that enabled it in the first place. Bloody hell.

The reason why this whole Curly discourse pisses me off is because it-- from what I can see-- ONLY brings up his failures 1-0 days before the crash and the Dead Pixel scene (or all the discussion around other points are drowned out by those two). Those scenes, while important to talk about, are not the only things he's done, and focussing on those as the only things is a mistake that comes short of understanding the issue. When it comes to Curly the main defences I see for him are "he was trying not to escalate the situation" and "he was trying to keep things under control the best he can" and "he was waiting for the right time to help Anya", but those don't work when you look at the bigger picture of everything he's done.

He half-assed through his psych eval despite clearly not being sane (and KNOWING he's barely sane, he literally admits it to Jimmy's face). He still continued to task her with Jimmy's psych evals. He brushed over Jimmy's sexual harassment of her as a joke. He didn't think about making sure she got psych evals done herself after being raped. He gave Swansea the axe but didn't give Anya the gun despite it being for "unrest amongst the crew" (whatever the hell THAT means). He let her assault slip his mind that she had to remind him. He's literally a blond man. He took no action to hold Jimmy responsible for anything, and prioritised how his violation of Anya would affect him rather than her. He ignored her demands for him to get rid of Jimmy. He still allowed Jimmy free reign of the ship as co-pilot even after he was openly fantasising about killing everyone and had a major motive and the means to do just that. He was potentially thinking of making her miscarry to cover up what happened. He was so accustomed to her sucking up being disrespected and disturbed that he didn't even notice a difference in her behaviour until she hid the fucking gun. There's so much other shit he's done and hasn't done, and not talking about them or glossing over them makes it so easy for people to argue that he isn't actually an enabler or just minimise the severity of his neglect.

And while I'm already dragging Curly through the mud, I might as well just drag Swansea too. I've seen too many people being like "Anya should've told Swansea instead" and "Swansea was the one that actually took responsibility". Like, y'all realise he's not that much better than Curly, right? He already knew about what happened to Anya-- he admits it to Jimmy's face-- but he didn't do shit. He knew, but he still got completely shitfaced for months despite her earlier protestation to that (for very understandable reasons). He knew, but he still let Jimmy have the axe AND be alone with Anya while having it. He knew, but when Anya locked herself in the Medical and Daisuke and Jimmy asked for his help he didn't budge nor really showed any care. He knew, but the reason he finally decided to do something about Jimmy wasn't Anya, it was Daisuke. Her suffering and her eventual death weren't enough for him to take action either.

This game, on top of everything else, is a great depiction of rape culture. It doesn't just include the rapists, but the people (mostly men) that stay silent, do nothing, make excuses for and protect the perpetrator for whatever reason, and Swansea and Curly (Curly way more so than Swansea) are both active contributors to the environment that allowed for evil to flourish and continue unhindered until it destroyed them all. And while that arguably doesn't make them evil themselves or as bad as Jimmy, they are so much more a part of the bigger problem than the fandom likes to admit.

[Ok since this is kinda gaining a bit of traction please consider helping these guys out here, here and here. Thanks!]

[leelreallylikespersona]

Been playing Super Monkey Ball (trying to get to Master- it's absolute hell but it's fun)... Haven't made it to the storm floors yet but felt like applying the motif of the stages to Yaldabaoth (❁´◡`❁)

Non-bg/effects version plus some refs since a total of three people have played the original SMB

[jelly-as-in-grape-concord]

do you guys ever think about george and betty from the weird little hut warren and gordon were supposed to stay at

[allofthebeanz]

Hello everyone, Huggy Bear is one of the best characters ever. That man has style and he's a business owner and he can take cops' popcorn out of their hands. Love this guy

[jean-dieu]

I hope Cullen takes psychic damages everytime Aloysius Lavellan The Mage Inquisitor That is a Mage and Also Casts Spells with Magic is super nice and kind to him which is, let's be realistic, all the time.

I hope he internally suffers when that elf trusts him 100%, thanks him for his help, smiles at him, defends him, helps him.

I hope the guilt is overwhelming when Aloysius Lavellan says stuff like "Can you believe what some templars did to those mages in circles? It's awful :((" "I'm glad you don't hate mages as a templar" and "You're such a good friend, thank you for being on my side" or even "I've always seen templars as men and women blinded by duty and faith, not able to see right from wrong. But I know you're not like that :))" I hope he feels the weight of his past actions on his shoulders. He never knew kindness could be so painful.

[theformerbastard]

Saw these dope flowers when I was walkin' home. Why was I walkin'? Funny story. Someone stole my goddamn bike. Isn't that hilarious? I certainly thought so.

[oikatzo]

the more I read SLF's manga to catch up with the story the more I think their world needs to be thankful that Amane 'Pencilgon' Towa only goes criminal in virtual world of VR games and not real life because dang holy shit.

[moonpie2405]

Rereading tamb rn, and I'm just saying... Mariel sure seems to remind people of their mothers whenever it's her first time physically meeting them. (Chise's utterly distraught expression in the first page kills me every single time btw)

Now, if someone were to just drag fumiki- yori, I mean yori over to meet her by the scruff of his grumpy and reluctant neck, I'm just saying it'd be interesting. Maybe when forgotten memories resurface he'd connect some dots using his own ramblings about red hair and green eyes and foreign ancestry and atavism. Just saying, you know. A humble suggestion, if you will.

Also, I wonder if this effect also applies to people older than Mariel. Do you think Elias saw Mariel and thought of Rahab?

[damage-incorp0rated]

hey guys this might be a really stupid question because i probably should be??? in the loop about this by now??? considering how long ive been a horsebone (which isn’t VERY LONG… coming up on my year 1 anniversary of hirasawa insanity actually) but uhhhh

what’s the deal with all his characters? i know about them. i know some of their names (avatar, sigma-12 (too lazy to get the symbol rn don’t kill me its 4am.), samurai, even the ones not played by him like astro-ho and whatnot if those guys count. hope they do because i like rang as a performer. very silly guy)

BUT

i don’t really know much. about them. i know they’re a part of a lot of his live shows but i feel like if i tried to watch them i wouldn’t really comprehend any overarching plot since i don’t really have good comprehension skills when it comes to japanese just yet and blah blah blah things like that. but i am a FIEND for characters and all of hirasawa’s seem really cool. avatar is probably the one i know the most about by far but i still don’t know a lot besides “it’s another version of hirasawa but ‘normal’ (not really) and everyone says he likes burgers”

yeah whatever pardon me if im stupid but i really want to learn more. bleh. don’t know where to look and all that, but i like them a lot from a surface level point of view. very interested in the lore here. call me matpat if you will.

yeah uh. that’s all. im not really expecting an answer but one would be NEAT!!! cause i really wanna learn the story behind all these guys

[affluent-havoc]

Finished Chapter 2! SPOILERS AHEAD! I must say that this chapter oddly made me dislike Makoto a bit. I genuinely thought I'd potentially dislike Byakuya in some ways more, perhaps feel a bit more upset at him than I do. On the contrary though, Makoto sucks in some ways. Which, don't get me wrong. Makoto deserves to be a flawed individual!! Golly though. For one, he really is a normie in some ways with how little he knows. How he asks so many unneeded questions, specifically when he was being dragged around by Byakuya which I get to some extent. He was very much disoriented from the whole ordeal, struggling to figure out why Byakuya of all people was interested in him specifically in regards of sleuthing about for the investigation. At the same time though, he needs to quit it with the rhetorical reciting questions that almost parrot what the other person just said. I get it's probably a bad habit of his but he need to get a grip about it. I can only extent sympathy for so long. Being a bit intentionally dramatic here by the way, but it sometimes feels like a tension killer or that it makes Makoto look a bit too dense. Don't get me started on the whole "rope" debacle too. Like, UUUUUGH! It's so obviously the extension cord Byakuya used in the library! So very obvious! Like, Byakuya took his time to bring Makoto to the library and I get Byakuya was being stubborn and not letting Makoto look at anything other than what he wanted him to look at. But it's so OBVIOUS!!! Though, I suppose I can blame a bit of this on the game design to some extent. Certainly doesn't make Makoto look smarter by any means. Maybe it's that denial where I can see Makoto's smarts shine in the trials so I feel like I'm internally being a bit harsh on him. I've seen others call him dense after all and I DO wanna look at Makoto in a positive light. I don't wanna be hating on the little bastard after all. It does get on my nerves sometimes though. and I can't lie to myself about that. Furthermore, the fact that I had to progress the trial by Hangman's Gambit-ing a slur for schizophrenic people regarding Genocide Jack. On a meta level, I get that doing D.I.D is a bit short and the full term is probably too long to do for just the second dang trial. Definitely not an excuse to use a slur that has no means being here though. Also though, in an in-world explanation, damnit, Makoto. You sure do have some shit you gotta sort out if that's what you're internally describing Jack as who, by the way, does not have schizophrenia. D.I.D and schizophrenia are very much not the same disorder. You called D.I.D a split personality multiple times which shows you know the difference. And, I can get it to some extent that, yes. This game is from the 2000s. The 2000s was definitely a more ableist time where terminology like that was flung around like it was nothing. So, in a sense of historical accuracy, I can understand why he might have said this word. I must also mention though that this isn't the first time Makoto was unnecessarily cruel to the others internally in his head. Thus, this certainly feels a bit more like a pattern of behavior for him. This is all interesting to me though with how much I've seen this side of Makoto ignored in some ways. He's surprisingly more judgmental than I feel some give him credit for. From internally thinking Taka was annoying when he first met him to finding Hifumi weird for his interests in Hifumi's own Free-time events (which I get. Hifumi isn't exactly written in the nicest light. Don't blame him for that. I blame the dated writing). I find this aspect of Makoto so intriguing though. In a way, Byakuya, the asshole of the group who dislikes everyone and mentions multiple times how he plans on following through with a murder, is less judgmental than Makoto. He said himself not to judge others by your own standards before the murder, during the investigation, and after the trial like he was the narrator of a children's book giving the moral of the story.

Fascinating...